Challenge to Identity

Seeing our limitations and biases is difficult. At meetings, participants point out specific instances, by pointing to or lifting a toy animal that represents one of these flaws (for instance, ego, idol, triumph, anger).

conformity (ant)
passivity (ox)
timidity (sparrow)
superficiality
aggression (leapord)
ruthless self-interest (shark)
hidden self-interest (wolf)
skin-deep beauty (ostrich)
glory (lion)

the pure heart (lamb)
innocence (dove)
self-sacrifice (goat)
obedience to the higher (falcon)
courage (hawk)

Trapped in dogma
What do you do when you are imprisoned in dogma and mistrust? "Most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars." Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance

Idolizing
“Deep in our hearts there is a perpetual temptation to worship the imposing; to make an idol of things dear to us. It is easy to adore the illustrious.” Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man, page 414
“Nor do we ever revere the known; because the known is in our grasp, and we revere only that which surpasses us. We do not revere the regularity of the year’s seasons, but that which makes it possible; not the calculating machine, but the mind that invented it; not the sun, but the power that created it. It is the extremely precious, morally, intellectually or spiritually, that we revere.” Abraham Heschel, Man is Not Alone, page 26

Triumph and glory (lion)
“We are chosen to remain free of infatuation with worldly triumphs, to retain independence of hysteria and deceptive glories; never to surrender to splendor, even at the price of remaining strangers to fashion.” Heschel, God in Search of Man, 416

Anger and fear
“Our spontaneous anger whenever others voice opinions different from ours, our instant fear whenever our position is threatened, our verbal manipulation aimed at getting others to think and do as we want.” Richard Foster, Spiritual Classics.
excessive struggle
Sometimes we fight so hard against forces that threaten to dominate us—for instance, peer pressure, technology, culture—that we lose capacity for freedom, truth, or love.

Beauty (ostrich)
It is easy to appreciate beauty, and hard to see through the masquerade of the ostentatious.” Abraham Heschel, God in Search of Man, page 414

Spontaneous reactions (Chameleon)
It’s one’s first, spontaneous and unprotected response that tells everything about one’s true feelings. Note the reaction, when you are confronted with an idea, when are attacked, when you meet a new person.

Conformity (ant)